+! 
» 
meal seems to be largely used also, though corn is not grown. 
were to be chopped up and stewed with onions, etc. By ® 
and black, have 
Windows, owing, 
878 An Isolated Community in the Bahama Islands, 
ordinary stimulus, as one learns, in a tropical climate. Stoves 
are almost unknown; and it was with the greatest difficulty that 
we could secure one at an exorbitant figure. Cooking is per 
formed in the most primitive fashion, mostly out of doors. But 
few fowls are kept, and fresh milk is, of course, unknown; $% 
that milk, eggs, and meat must be practically excluded from 
the dietary. Nor is fruit partaken of so abundantly as might” 
be supposed; it is reserved to sell to the sailors who visit the” 
island during the summer months. The pilot who came aboard 
to take our vessel over the reef had with him an unsightly lump 
mass of crushed sweet-potatoes baked into a sort of cake. Indian 
As in other ill-fed communities, meals are very irregular. 
We learned on one occasion that our diver, who had been k 
work up till 11 a.m., had not yet partaken of any breakfast, such 
fasting being, he said, a frequent occurrence. On another oc 
Sion, when bringing up some corals for us, he seized the opp?" 1 
tunity of placing half a dozen big molluscs (Strombus ggo) 
in the bow of the boat, —“ for my breakfast to-morrow.” 
side of many a house might be seen piles of the shells of Oe 
molluscs, left to be burned for lime, furnishing that of the ve 
whitest and best, as might be expected. Enough will have 
Said to show that, from a physiological stand-point, this com 
munity is in a state of partial starvation. T 
Though it may surprise many to learn of it, a similar OF 
huddli the houses few and small; bedding insufficient 
MPR ag consequence. Moreover, the natives, | 
a peculiar custom of closing up the 
I fancy, to dread of the violent sto 
